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17 November, 2006

Spam Increases 67% Since August 2006

Barracuda Networks reported November 15th that they have seen an increase in spam of 67% since August of this year. I learned this fact while reading about spam linked to Russian gang from eWeek, "...authorities have traced the operation to a well-organized hacking gang controlling a 70,000-strong peer-to-peer botnet..."

This hacking gang is using the trojan tool that removes other viruses before setting-up shop on breached computers, which I reported in October. The most common compromised machine is XP with service pack 2 at 47%. Another 37% is XP with no service pack or service pack 1. This I do not understand at all -- if you are going to use your computer on the Internet, you absolutely must keep it up-to-date with patches and fixes. Over 12,500 of the compromised machines are in the US.

Finally, this group push two messages, "pump-and-dump" and penis enlargements. The "pump-and-dump" is penny stocks. It is believe the reason must be that these two items are the most lucrative.

If you want to learn more about how one of these operations work, check out the eWeek article. In addition, make sure you are protecting yourself:

Keep your OS up-to-date

Use an anti-virus tool that is kept up-to-date, daily

Use a spyware protector

Use a firewall such as ZoneAlarm; using a software firewall will allow you to be notified if unauthorized programs try to access the Internet